Mesa Verde National Park, CO

Saturday, May 26 -Mesa Verde National Park, CO- 212 Miles Today, 4085.5 For the Trip

Well, I have still not managed to escape the wind. Today the "dust", "sand" or what ever you want to call it was extraordinary. It was thick enough that it was like a red fog (except fog isn't gritty, doesn't get in your eyes, nose & teeth.) On the way out of Chinle the dust blowing across the road was so thick you could only see two to three car lengths in front of you. While it cleared up as I headed up US 191 and east on US 160, there were pockets along the way that were almost as dense. While I don't have a weather station with a wind speed indicator, the weather app on my phone tells me the gusts are up to 65MPH.

The dust changed as I got closer to Colorado - the color shifted from red to grey. I stopped in Cortez for gas and the sky was clear (although there was still plenty of wind.) I wimped out and changed my reservation to a site with hook ups. Probably didn't really need them since it isn't all that hot (we are over 7000') but I wanted to be able to keep the trailer sealed if the dust got bad.

After setting up the trailer in site 159 in Morefield Campground (it is in the park, but run by Aramark) I headed to the Far View Visitor Center to get a ticket for the Long House tour. The tickets were far less than I expected - $3.00 for the 1 1/2 hour tour. I forgot how spread out Mesa Verde is - it is a 45 minute drive from the visitor center to the Wetherhill Mesa location where the tour starts. Today's mileage includes the trip out to the Wetherhill Mesa, the actual drive from Chinle was quite a bit less.

I got to the tour site in plenty of time and as I arrived the wind (which had been getting stronger all day) reached the point where they canceled my tour. I don't blame them - even good sized rocks were blowing off the tables under the shelter roof. While heading back to the car I met a couple from Kansas that had driven out on a Honda motorcycle & they asked if I could give the woman a ride back to the visitor center. I don't blame her for wanting a ride rather than sitting on the back of the bike - the dust in the air along with the wind is just too much. We had a nice chat on the way back. I turned in my ticket and exchanged it for the 10:30AM tour tomorrow. I sure hope the wind dies down.

I'm back at the trailer, putting today's page together & since there doesn't seem to be much of an AT&T or Verizon signal here at the campsite, after the pages are built I'll go to the campground store & use their WiFi to post.

Here is hoping the wind will die down enough to cook tonight. It is no longer steady, but the gusts are strong enough to shake the trailer.

Till tomorrow -